Vikings in America (34 page)

9
. Floki Vilgertharson's use of ravens as a navigational aid is recorded in
Landnamabok
. The story has become a staple of Icelandic story-telling, earning Floki the nickname “Ravens Floki”. Stories also develop the theme of the different views on the worth of Iceland held by Floki and two of his
crew. While Floki is reported as seeing Iceland as wholly worthless, Herjolf regarded Iceland as having good and bad qualities, while Thorolf pronounced the Nordic equivalent of a land flowing with milk and honey – he said that there was butter on every blade of grass. By this statement Thorolf won himself a nickname – Butter Thorolf.

10
.
Landnamabok
records by name the 435 original settlers of Iceland, along with many of their descendants, giving a total of more than 3,000 named individuals and around 1,400 named settlements. It is readily available online both as Icelandic transcription and translation into English and other languages.

11
. News and findings of DECODE genetics are on their website at
http://www.decode.com/

12
. The now classic account of Thingvellir and Icelandic democracy is Sveinbjorn Johnson's
Pioneers of Freedom, An Account of the Icelanders and the Icelandic Free State 874-1262
(Boston, The Stratford Company, 1930), produced to celebrate the one thousandth anniversary of the founding of the Althing.

13
. The major source for the Norse pantheon is the
Elder Edda
of the Codex Regius. There is an enormous literature of secondary works and of retellings of tales of the Norse gods.

14
. Much of the information about Eirik the Red comes from the saga which bears his name.

1
. J Arneborg, J Heinemeier, N Lynnerup, H L Nielsen, N Rud, and A E Sveinbjornsdottir,
Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14C Dating of Their Bones' Radiocarbon
(University of Arizona, 1961).

2
. Reginald Heber (1783-1826) was Anglican Bishop of Calcutta and author of many hymns. His reference to Greenland in his 1819 hymn reflects the prejudices of his age rather than knowledge of the land described, and it may well be that his other geographical references are equally suspect. Notwithstanding he has provided what is probably the best known missionary hymn, starting:

From Greenland's icy mountains, from India's coral strand; Where Afric's sunny fountains roll down their golden sand:
From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain, They call us to deliver their land from error's chain.

3
. A discussion on sailing directions is found within James Robert Enterline's
Erikson, Eskimos, and Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of America
(John Hopkins University Press, 2002).

4
. The English translation of
Speculum Regale
is L. M. Larson's
The King's Mirror (Speculum regale – Konungs skuggsjá)
, Scandinavian Monographs 3, New York, 1917, while the standard edition is by Ludwig Holm-Olsen,
Konungs Skuggsjá
, (Oslo, Norsk Historisk Kjeldeskrift-institutt, 1983).

5
. Between the fall of Rome and the Italian Renaissance there are several instances of learning flourishing in Europe, including the Golden Age of Northumbria, King Alfred's Wessex and the Carolingian Renaissance. The Northern Renaissance in Iceland differed from these in that literacy and learning were relatively widespread rather than confined to a small group of literate monks.

6
.
Heimskringla
begins “Kringla heimsins, sú er mannfólkið byggir…” – “The orb of the world on which mankind lives…” The title derives from the first two words. Heimskringla sub-divides into many sagas, often referred to as if independent works. This opening is from
Ynglinga Saga
.

7
. Otherwise known as Jon Rauthi, archbishop of Nidaros (1268–1282).

8
. The 1362 Oraefajokull eruption destroyed the neighbouring farm land, an area subsequently renamed Oraefi after the volcano, which has in turn entered the Icelandic language to mean “wasteland”. Huge amounts of tephra were ejected, with resulting climatic disruption caused by the ash.

9
. The official
Life of Hans Egede
by Louis Bobe (Rossenkilde and Bagger, 1952, both Danish and English editions) is the ultimate source of material here on Hans Egede. However Eve Garnett's
To Greenland's Icy Mountain
reworks much of the material in a format which is far more attractive to read. The story of Egede's mission to Greenland, a land then almost unknown in Europe, provides an interesting parallel with the fortitude and courage of the first Viking settlers. As well as missionary he was explorer and coloniser, while in his interaction with the Inuit Greenlanders he showed himself to be first an able linguist, then a sympathetic friend. His tombstone in Copenhagen provides an appropriate tribute which translates as: “An honour among Christians, a light to the heathens, famous in Norway, revered in Denmark, but in Greenland immortal”.

10
. It is important to find appropriate balance and scholarly distance when discussing the Zeno Voyages. On the one hand the book and the map were
of enormous influence in determining European views of the North Atlantic, and if nothing else they made the Mediterranean world aware that there was a North Atlantic region and there were lands within it. On the other hand the account is garbled throughout, and has become the plaything of those who want to advance theories unsupported and unsupportable. There is absolutely no shred of academic respectability in the assertions that they concern a voyage made by Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney.

11
. Brian Smith, “Earl Henry Sinclair's fictitious trip to America”,
New Orkney Antiquarian Journal
, vol. 2, 2002.

1
. An extensive account of Maeshowe is offered by Colin Richard's
Dwelling Among the Monuments: The Neolithic Village of Barnhouse, Maeshowe Passage Grave and Surrounding Monuments at Stenness, Orkney
(2005, McDonald Institute Monographs). Bruce Dickens'
The Runic Inscriptions of Maeshowe
(1930) remains popular.

2
. The most widely read of the early translation was James Russell Lowell's poem “The Voyage to Vinland” published within his anthology
Under the Willows and Other Poems
(1868).

3
. The historical outline of Gudrid's remarkable life is readily available in numerous Viking histories. It has inspired the novel
The Sea Road
by Margaret Elphinstone (2000), considered one of the 100 best Scottish books of all time (
List
magazine).

1
.
The Viking Saga
by Peter Schledermann (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1997). A more academic approach to the topic is within Peter Schledermann's
Crossroads to Greenland: 3000 Years of Prehistory in the Eastern High Arctic
, published by the Arctic Institute of North America of the University of Calgary (1990)

2
. The Inuit resettled to Grise Fiord call it
Aujuittuq
, meaning “the place that never thaws”. The modern settlement was established in 1953 with eight Inuit families who were promised homes, good hunting and the option to return to their previous homes on the Ungava Peninsula should they wish. In fact the homes were not built, the hunting available in the vicinity of Grise Ford unfamiliar to the Inuit from more southerly locations (who
found it hard to adapt), and when they requested a return to their previous homes, Canada reneged. A 1993 Canadian government hearing received the report
The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953-55 Relocation
by The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and in compensation made a settlement payment of C$10,000,000.

3
. Dr Frederick Cook's claim to have reached the Pole in 1908, a year before Peary, is not now widely accepted. Cook was later convicted and imprisoned for fraud, and his poorly-supported claim to have reached the Pole does indeed appear to be another fraudulent statement. Peary's claim has been disputed on the grounds that his final dash for the pole was achieved with the benefit of some remarkably fast speeds in the final marches both to and from the pole, that he did not have a navigator with him, and because the exploit for long appeared unsupported by expedition diaries. However his diaries emerged in 1986 and are considered consistent with the reported story (and indeed replete with pemmican stains). In 2005 a team led by Tom Avery recreated Peary's route to the Pole using similar equipment, and made a journey time five hours faster than Peary's, proving that Peary's journey time, once considered suspect, is in fact possible. The balance of probability does seem to be that Peary reached the Pole just as he stated – in his own words “April 6, 1909, I have today hoisted the national ensign of the United States of America at this place, which my observations indicate to be the North Polar axis of the earth, and have formally taken possession of the entire region, and adjacent, for and in the name of the President of the United States of America”. Peary's navigational readings made in the absence of a specialist navigator are likely to have been accurate to within about five miles, which most commentators seem to feel is near enough to claim a visit to the Pole.

4
. Walker O Smith,
Polynyas: Windows to the World
, (Volume 74, Elsevier Oceanography Series, 2007).

5
. J. H. Freese,
Photius' Excerpt of Ctesias' Indica
, 1920.

6
. The seven unicorn tapestries in The Cloisters (Metropolitan Museum of Art) New York are:

1. The Start of the Hunt

2. The Unicorn Cleanses the Stream of Poison with its Horn

3. The Unicorn Leaps into the Stream

4. The Unicorn Defends Himself

5. The Unicorn is Tamed and Betrayed by the Maiden

6. The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle

7. The Unicorn in Captivity.

The sequence tells the story of the unicorn hunt, where the unicorn is killed not through the skill of the hunters but by the maiden's betrayal. The unicorn is killed in the sixth tapestry and resurrected in the seventh, stressing the role of the unicorn as a metaphor for Christ.

7
. K McCullough and P Schledermann, “Mystery cairns of Washington Irving Island”,
Polar Record
(vol 35, no.195, Oct. 1999).

8
. Edward Moss,
Shores of the Polar Sea, A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6
(London: Marcus Ward, 1878).

1
. E C Coleman,
History of the Royal Navy and Polar Exploration: From Franklin to Scott
(Tempus Publishing 2006).

2
. Rachel A Qitsualik and Sean A Tinsley,
Qanuq Pinngurnirmata: Inuit Stories of How Things Came to Be
(Inhabit Media 2009).

3
. Paul Malkie,
Leif Eriksson: The Man who Almost Changed the World
(TV documentary, 2000).

4
. Farley Mowat,
The Alban Quest The Search for a Lost Tribe
(1999).

5
. Douglas MacKay,
The Honourable Company; A History of the Hudson's Bay Company
(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1936).

6
. An alternative explanation would be that the rune-stone writer expected to be killed, and was writing for posterity.

1
. Sources for Greenlandic pre-history include Therkel Mathiassen's
The Eskimo Archaeology of Julianehaab District: With a Brief Summary of the Prehistory of the Greenlanders
, (C.A. Reitzel, 1936); Mareau S. Maxwell's
Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic
(New World Archaeological Record, Academic Press Inc, 1985); Peter Schledermann's
Crossroads to Greenland – 3000 Years of History in the Eastern High Arctic
(Arctic Institute of North America of the University of Calgary, 1990).

2
. George Francis Lyon (1795-1832) explored first in West Africa, where he sought (without finding) the city of Timbuktu, and subsequently took part in the search for the North-West Passage. He had a genuine interest in what he termed the “natives”, learning Arabic to assist his West African exploration and being tattooed by the Inuit when in the Arctic. His own
account of his Arctic experiences is published in two volumes:
The Private Journal of Captain G.F. Lyon, of
H.M.S. Hecla,
During the Recent Voyage of Discovery under Captain Parry
(1824) and
A Brief Narrative Of An Unsuccessful Attempt To Reach Repulse Bay In
His Majesty's Ship Griper,
In The Year MDCCCXXIV
(1825).

3
. Key texts on Inuit history and language include: Ishmael Alunik,
Across Time and Tundra: the Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic
(Vancouver, Raincoast Books, 2003); Georges-Hébért Germain and David Morrison,
Inuit: les peuples du froid
, (Montréal, Musée canadien des civilisations, 1995); Gillian Robinson (ed),
Isuma Inuit Studies Reader: an Inuit Anthology
, (Montreal, Isuma, 2004); Renée Fossett,
In Order to Live Untroubled: Inuit of the Central Arctic, 1550-1940
, (Winnipeg, University of Manitoba Press, 2001); Louis-Jacques Dorais,
La parole inuit: langue, culture et société dans l'Arctique nord-américain
(Paris, Peeters, 1996).

4
. Nellie Cournoyea, Richard G. Condon, Julia Ogina,
The Northern Copper Inuit: A History
(University of Oklahoma Press,1996, in Civilization of American Indians).

5
. Jean Malaurie's
The Last Kings of Thule
(London, 1982) is a starting point for much relating to the Thule Inuit.